After cleaning up, he steps out of the tub and hands me a towel. Then he walks out the door with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. My chains are still locked, so nowhere to go for me. I hope he’s coming back … I shouldn’t be hoping that, but then again, he’s my only way out of these cuffs.
When the door opens again, something dangles on his finger and he’s showing it off first.
It’s a steel band—thick and shiny like aluminum.
The smile that appears next creeps me out. “Surprise!” he muses, chuckling as he steps in.
I look up and frown. “What’s that?”
“For you,” he says, walking toward me. “Picked it up at a kinky store while I was out for a walk.” I gasp, which makes him smile. “What? You didn’t think I’d just sit here and waste time, did you?” he muses.
He grabs the key lying on the sink and takes off the cuffs, and then he helps me step out of the tub. He spins me around until my back is against his firm chest. Holding the steel band in front of me, he places a kiss on my neck.
“You’re my dirty little Princess, Vanessa. Mine. You’re not going anywhere without me or my permission … That cage is not enough. The cuffs aren’t enough. Even that belt around your neck isn’t enough. But something like this will do to restrain you.”
He turns the band around in his hand, showing me the small ring attached to the back. He fishes something from his pocket, a clicker, and presses it. The band springs open, as well as my eyes.
“This is to celebrate you becoming my pet … and to keep you from running away while I take my vengeance out on your body.” He puts the band around my neck before I get a chance to put a finger in between and clicks it into place, closing it completely.
“No!” I yell.
He puts a hand in front of my mouth and shushes me. He turns me toward the mirror, forcing me to witness the fact that he has put a collar on me … like a real pet.
“Yes, Princess. Look at yourself now. Look at what you’ve become. A dirty little pet … My pet.” He touches the ring around my neck, which twists all around the band. “You thought you could leash me, the monster, but instead, I have leashed you, the pet.” The grin on his face makes me shiver and tears well up in my eyes at the sight of the both of us. What he’s become. What he’s reduced me to.
He presses a kiss to my cheek. “Oh, I’m going to have so much fun toying with you.”
We’re both monsters, and this will be our end.
CHAPTER 19
PHOENIX
A few days later …
For days, I’ve been giving that girl in the closet some food and water, and then chucking her back in there. I honestly don’t know what the fuck to do with her. I can’t free her, but it’s such a waste to let her die. It would make Vanessa less compliant, so I guess I have no other choice but to keep her alive. Besides, I hate killing innocent people. See? I’m not such a bad guy.
The doctor came yesterday. Well, our organization’s doctor, of course. He’s as reliable as a regular one, except he does the dirty jobs, the ones no one else will ever want to take. I mean, who wants to tend to a kidnapped girl? Right.
I had Vanessa tested and myself too, so I’d be a hundred percent sure it’s safe to ravage her. Plus, I didn’t want to use condoms anymore. I want to feel her wet pussy with nothing but my own cock. She’s always been on the pill because I found it in her cabinet, and I make sure she still takes it by forcing it down her throat. I check her mouth every time, so I make sure she doesn’t spit it out. Of course, I assume she doesn’t want my baby anyway. Just thinking about it makes me laugh.
I look at her cage, which stands in the corner of the living room now because I wanted a change of scenery. She’s grinding her teeth, still glaring at me as if she’s going to rip my head off if I come close. I marvel at the sight of her in the new panties that I gave her. It’s black lingerie with a little red skirt, perfect for my pet.
“Comfy?” I ask, as I reposition myself on the couch.
“Hardly.”
“Good.” I smile.
“When are you going to take this thing off me?” she says, pointing to her collar.
“Never,” I muse.
“I’m not an animal,” she hisses.
“You are to me.”
She makes a face. “You know? You’re really a pig when you say things like that.”
“Aw, we can be animals together, babe.” I throw her a kiss in the air, which only seems to annoy her more.
“Is this really how you intend to spend the rest of your days until the cops arrive to take you away? Honestly, I thought you were going to hurt me, or even kill me, but no, you’re keeping me in a cage like some sort of …”
“Pet. Exactly.” I shift forward. “Which is exactly what you are to me. Be happy. It means you’re worthy enough to live.”
“They’ll put you away for a long time once they find me,” she says.
“Who? The cops? I doubt it. They won’t find either of us before we’re dead,” I say, and I really mean it. I don’t think I’m going to make it out alive. I don’t like the thought of dying, but I sure as hell don’t like spending an eternity stuck in prison. I’d rather go out with a bang.
And I’ll make sure to take her with me.
“If Arthur is still out there, he’ll get them to come to my house.”
“Ha, I doubt it. The fucker has probably already bled to death,” I muse.
“You don’t know that,” she says, gazing at me from under her eyelashes. “Maybe he’s still alive. Maybe he’s recovering. Maybe he’ll come for me. And when he does … your head’s going to roll.”
“No, yours is, sweet cheeks. In case you didn’t remember, he wanted you dead.”
“He’ll want you dead, too,” she says. “After what you did to him.”
Sighing, I get up from the couch and grab my duct tape. As I walk to her, she starts protesting.
“Stop, Phoenix. Stop doing that.”
She’s been getting on my nerves a lot. “You talk too much,” I say, as I fish a pair of her panties from my pocket. I briefly smell them, her scent still intoxicating as ever, and then I stuff them in her mouth and stick over some tape. “There.” I smile. “Much better.”
***
VANESSA
I hate him.
I hate him so much.
And yet, when he looks at me like that with that happy smile on his face, I can’t help but wonder what has become of us. I’m a captured woman, stuck in this prison and subjected to his every whim, and he’s the monster who changes his plans and wishes with the snap of a finger. Every day I wonder when he’ll kill me. If he’ll follow through with what he said.
I know he’s done it before. He can do it again.
Just like me.
I don’t remember when we became this way. It just happened. Over the course of the years, our decisions shaped us into the people we are now. But why did we let this happen? Couldn’t we see the consequences? Or were we too blinded by hatred?
I push the thoughts away, but they keep drifting back into my mind. I can’t allow myself to think about the what-ifs and could have beens. I should focus on the here and now, but it’s hard, knowing our history.
Somehow, a little part of me still thinks she can change the inevitable. That she can change herself. And him.
But it’s all futile, and I, more than anyone, should know that feeling for people never leads to anything good.
With this collar around my neck, he reminds me every day of his hold over me. This isn’t the first collar I’ve worn, even though it is the first that’s around my neck. There’s another who’s claimed me as his own before. Not my heart. Not my love. He had my life in his hands as he twisted the little ring around my finger.
It meant the end of Vanessa, the girl who lived for love, and the beginning of the girl who lived for vengeance.
***
Age 19